#565 The Third and Final Continent- Jhumpa Lahiri
Once again, Lahiri delivers a stunningly beautiful story. Reading these stories is like sitting by a lake, quietly watching the small ripples on the water. A man, single in his thirties travels back to Calcutta to be married before moving to America.
“My wife’s name was Mala. The marriage had been arranged by my older brother and his wife. I regarded the proposition with neither objection nor enthusiasm. It was a duty expected of me, as it was expected of every man.”
After only a few days of knowing his new wife, he settles in Massachusetts for six weeks by himself, before his wife joins him. He gets a small room in an large house owned by a very elderly woman, Mrs. Croft; she is alone and bit addled, but finds him to be a perfect gentleman. He moves out when his wife finally comes. They are a bit uncomfortable with the strangeness of each other at first, but seeing themselves through the eyes of Mrs. Croft settles them down.
Soon, while they get comfortable with married life, they see a notice in the paper that, Mrs. Croft has died. He is moved to tears for the loss of this woman he barely knew.
“Mrs. Croft’s was the first death I mourned in America, for hers was the first life I had admired; she had left this world at last, ancient and alone, never to return.”
The beginning of this story happened while American astronauts had first landed on the moon. The world was suddenly new and full of possibility.
Notable Passage: “Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination.”
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